“Temporary” pension waiver 20-plus years for narc chief

Albany County Sheriff's Department Inspector John Burke displays marijuana confiscated from a man and woman traveling south on Interstate 87.

ALBANY — A state agency that once pledged to clean up so-called double-dipping abuses recently granted permission for an Albany County sheriff’s inspector to collect his police pension while also being paid more than $87,700 a year as a narcotics supervisor.
In granting the waiver the state Civil Service Commission concluded that, for the 20th year in a row, the sheriff’s department has found no other qualified candidates available to fill the shoes of Inspector John F. Burke, who was appointed to head the sheriff’s narcotics unit in May 1991.
That’s the year Burke, whose unit’s tactics have come under fire for alleged civil rights abuses, retired from the Albany police force and began receiving a $32,035 annual pension on top of his sheriff’s salary. Without the waiver, his pension would be frozen while he’s paid a full-time government income.
Burke, 61, received his latest waiver in December in a state proceeding that lasted a few minutes. The panel based its decision on a handful of documents supplied by sheriff’s officials. Under guidelines enacted in 2008, the commission concluded the sheriff’s department had demonstrated that “qualified, non-retired persons are not available for recruitment.”
It also means that for two decades the sheriff’s department, which is one of the area’s largest police agencies, has been unable to find or train someone to replace Burke, including from within its ranks.Full story from Sunday’s paper.